


You're Alone Until You're Not Alone

by MaggieRose



Category: The Adventure Zone (Podcast)
Genre: Gen, everyone in this deserves to be happy and they all love each other do you hear me, lots of characters are in this ok
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-13
Updated: 2017-05-13
Packaged: 2018-10-31 06:47:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,762
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10893942
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MaggieRose/pseuds/MaggieRose
Summary: It's Lup's right to hug whoever the fuck she wants to.





	You're Alone Until You're Not Alone

When Taako remembers, he doesn’t have the luxury of a moment to think. There is no time for mourning, no time for reminiscing, The Hunger is here, on the base, and there is only time for _action_.

            Taako is not exactly an elf unused to moments devoid of luxury, but he is deeply shaken by the sudden realization that he is not used to being without his sister. He knows now, he remembers now, and her absence is all at once a gaping hole darker and more terrifying than the encroaching agents of The Hunger could ever be.

            Still, he moves forward, dodging terrifying columns of darkness as slam down around him. Magic missiles fly from the umbrastaff, and every one of them feels a little more like her magic until he can’t handle it anymore, the being without her. He takes off out of the heart of the battle completely on autopilot, deaf and blind to the cries and plight of the other members of the Bureau and the IPRE as they are consumed by fighting in his wake.

            Taako bursts through the doors of the abandoned Fantasy Costco and continues to run, the click of his heels echoing through the vast and empty space scored with the deep singed aftereffects of the Flaming Poisoning Raging Sword of Doom. It’s not until he’s standing in front of the pod in the back room, panting and crying and white-knuckle grasping the umbrastaff, that he realizes that he has _no fucking clue what he’s actually planning to do_.

            “Taako…”

            Taako whirls around to find himself eye to teary eye with Barry. He is, to put it lightly, a mess- voidfish ichor down the front of his horrendous denim vest and glasses smudged and askew, hands already wrung to redness from casting defensive spells with no outside conduit.

            “We have to,” Taako’s voice catches in his throat, “we have to fucking get her back. We have to get her back so she can tell you how goddamn ugly that outfit is and help me murder Lucretia and just _be_ here again we have to,” the words stop again, and Taako is still screaming inside his head, memories swarming and crashing and reminding him that he’s never been without her before, not like this.

            Barry shoves his glasses up and rubs his eyes aggressively, visibly fighting a powerful urge to break the same way Taako has.  
            “The pod takes _months,_ Taako, and we would need her blood or hair or _something_ just to make her a body again! I want her back so badly, you know I do, but there is literally no way of knowing what happened to her soul, even if we could magically grow her a body. We need to get back out there and fight them now. There’s nothing else we can do.”

            Barry reaches out to grab Taako by the shoulder, to do what he’s not quite sure, but before he can the umbrastaff flies out of Taako’s bone breaking grasp and whacks Barry on the head with a bruising strike. It bounces off of him and lands at the foot of the pod, snagging a long strand of Taako’s hair as it goes and shaking for a moment before it stills, looking almost expectant.

            Barry stares at the umbrella for a long moment, and then realization clicks in his brain.

            “What the fuck.”

            Taako’s eyes widen as he realizes what Lup, whatever is left of her in there, is trying to tell him.

            “We’re identical! Lup and I are identical! Cut me open if it’s blood you need let’s get this girl cookin’!”

            “I mean, the hair will work,” Barry says slowly, “you don’t have to cut your arm off or anything, but we still won’t have her back for another several months. Not only that, but,” Barry moves to the pod and opens it, peering inside with furrowed brows, “when I did this I had my soul right there. I did it _with_ my soul. Lup is, what, stuck inside an umbrella? It doesn’t seem like she can get out on her own or I imagine she would already be out here screaming at us.”

            Taako tunes out after hearing “the hair will work,” and immediately begins pulling strands of hair out of multiple parts of his head and throwing them in the pod. He bites his longest nail off, the pinky on his left hand that he’s been growing out for a time of deep anxiety, and throws that in for good measure. Then, he slams the pod shut and pulls out his spellbook, poring over the pages for something, _anything,_ that could speed up the process.

            Then, it clicks. He leaves Barry behind without a second thought, running back out of the Fantasy Costco with the same speed he entered it, all the way back to the war-torn quad where his friends, the people he knows in the back of his mind are just as much his family as Lup is, are under an unfathomable assault. His heart clenches further as he sees them, Killian and Carey are fighting back to back with the aid of Noelle, kicking ass despite everything. Magnus has a small splatter of voidfish ichor on his chin and the Flaming Raging Poisoning Sword of Doom in constant motion. Merle, working hand in hand with Davenport, is making incredible use of his warhammer, and, _there she is,_ Lucretia is working with and for Angus, who just took out a good 50 agents of the hunger with an excellently cast fireball. They’re being crowded against the entrance to the grand dome that houses Lucretia’s office, and Taako shoves his way through the horde and grabs her, shoving them back into the dome and slamming the door. As an afterthought, he reopens the door and grabs Angus by the back of his prissy little collar and drags him out of the fray too.

            “Sir? Where have you been? What’s going on, are you okay?” Angus begins to babble at Taako, but he ignores him in favor of advancing on Lucretia more threateningly than he even intends to be, dangerous energy practically radiating off of him in waves that would make his hair stand on end if this were a fantasy Ghibli movie.

            “I know you didn’t destroy the relics, you absolute _fucking_ coward, so _tell me where they are right now.”_

“The, Taako you know I can’t-” Lucretia stammers at him with her eyes cast to the ground, and in that moment all he can see is the shy young woman she was when they met. So full of promise and intelligence, so devoid of confidence that all it took was one teasing quip from Lup to flip the off switch on all of her eloquence and gravitas entirely. Anger and heartbreak rushes through him again; how did they fucking _get here,_ get to this point where Lucretia has the absolute nerve to tell Taako what he can and can’t do when… when Lup is still…

            “Tell me where the Chalice is right now or I’ll-” Taako whirls around and snatches Angus’ tiny star-topped wand from his shaking grasp, “I’ll fucking break your brain to find out, Lucretia. I am _going to get my sister back, and I am going to do it now.”_

Lucretia gives Taako a wide eyed, desperate stare, and then she breaks. Her face crumbles, and she lifts her staff and swipes it in front of her. A tear not unlike the ones Kravitz creates appears and the relics pour out of thin air, clattering to the floor with a jarring sound as she falls to one knee, leaning heavily on the staff. Taako pays her no mind, snatching the Chalice and turning to go, but Angus grabs his arm before he can get out the door.

            “Sir please, let me help somehow, let me do something, tell me what’s happening, _please,”_ his little voice is shaking, and Taako moves on instinct to pull him into a crushing hug.

            “You’ve just gotta stay safe for now, little man, you got that?” He steps back and kneels down, pushing Angus’ wand back into his hand. “Shit’s completely fucked right now, and there’s literally a hundred years worth of information that you’re missing, so just fight hard, fight smart, _run if you need to._ I would tell you to just hide out here but-”

            “But I’m not going to do that, sir.” Angus squares his shoulders and gives Taako a more determined look than an 11 year old should be able to muster.

            “Yeah, Ango, no shit.” Taako hugs Angus again, and then he turns and runs. He doesn’t let himself think about it.

            When he arrives back in the Fantasy Costco back room, Barry is examining the umbrastaff closely, casting diagnostic spells and murmuring to himself, or possibly to Lup herself on the off chance that she has energy remaining to hear him. He looks up when he hears Taako return, and nearly drops the umbrella at the sight of the Temporal Chalice in his hands.

            “Taako what in the everloving _fuck_ are you doing?”

            “If this stupid awful cursed object can change the entire flow of time, I should be able to use it to speed up the passage of time within the pod. Just hit me really hard when the oven dings so I don’t go completely off the rails with this thing, yeah? Avoid the face, if you would.”

            “Wow, your ideas are still really good and really bad at the same time, huh?”

            “Fuck you, this is a great idea,” Taako snaps, and then he cups the relic in both hands and moves to the pod.

            _Taako,_ the Chalice whispers in his mind, _we can fix all of this, if you let me help. You can go back to before she ever died, to before the falling out and before the loneliness, we can go back to before The Hunger even existed._

“Shut up you piece of shit,” Taako says out loud, “I need a time bubble and that’s it. Chop chop, fucker, I don’t have all day.”

            Taako closes his eyes and focuses in on the cup, letting its thrall affect him little by little until he has the pod surrounded in a shimmering field of time. Behind him, Barry readies himself to tear the Chalice out of Taako’s hands as soon as Lup’s body has grown fully. Inside the pod rapid change is visible, strands of hair and nails swirling and combining before beginning to grow into a body that is an exact duplicate of Taako. As soon as long hair has grown out to sway and enfold Lup’s new body in the suspension of the pod’s liquid, Taako is thrown abruptly back into reality by a smack on the head from Barry and the sound of the Chalice again hitting the floor.

            Taako falls to one knee, head swimming, and Barry takes action. He mutters a spell and a light surrounds the umbrastaff, then he drops it as if he’s been burned. A shimmering, nebulous form appears from it and begins struggling towards the pod, and then Barry collapses beside Taako, eyes completely blank. Another form, one Taako thinks he probably shouldn't be able to see, nudges and guides Lup’s soul into the pod. Lup begins to move within the fluid and Barry’s soul vanishes again, snapping back into place and ending the emergency Magic Jar. The door to the pod swings open and green brackish fluid pours across the linoleum floor and over Taako and Barry, neither of whom notice in their captivation with Lup, alive if not well, standing before them with an inscrutable look on her face.

     “So,” she starts, voice unsteady with ages of disuse and the impact of entirely new vocal chords, “do either of you maybe want to get me some fucking pants or something?”

     Taako lets out a sound that is not a sob or a laugh but somewhere in between, and Barry leaps to his feet to pull Lup into a spinning embrace, laughing with the most intense relief he imagines anyone has ever felt.

     “I can’t believe that worked,” Taako says shakily, getting to his feet and casting a quick duplication spell on his pants and blouse and handing them to his sister. “I cannot believe that actually fucking worked holy _shit.”_

     As soon as she’s clothed Lup launches herself at Taako, throwing her arms around his neck and burying her face in his shoulder, the moment too big for words. Every moment is too big for words to her now, and the twins fall to their knees and cry into each other’s hair, in this instant too overwhelmed to remember The Hunger outside and the urgency of their situation.

     Barry stands aside, letting them have their moment, but a moment is all they can have. He clears his throat, a little awkwardly, and then sighs and moves in to physically grab both of them by the shoulders and nudge them up. Lup and Taako both glare at him for a moment, but irritation is replaced quickly by determination. The three of them look at each other and square their shoulders, rather dorkily in Barry’s case, and leave the Fantasy Costco with the green fluid of the pod seeping after them out of the destroyed back room.

     Back on the quad, there isn’t a still moment to be found. They begin fighting on the outskirts of the panic, picking off agents of the hunger in the shapes of robots and slime creatures and…

     “Oh, fuck,” murmurs Lup.

     Among the swarms of indistinct opalescent enemies, the bureau and the IPRE are fighting against foes far more familiar. Lup, Barry, and Taako watch in horror as Carey freezes in the approach of Magnus’s attacking silhouette, saved in the nick of time by flesh Magnus leaping in and taking his double out with the Flaming Poisoning Raging Sword of Doom. Several feet away Merle is battling a mirror of himself side-by-side with Davenport, who jabs a dagger he got from somewhere into an attacking Barry.

     Then, they spot Lucretia, fighting to uphold a shield spell with visibly waning strength. Seven dark, shimmering figures are encircling her, one of each member of the IPRE, and when the Hunger Lup steps into her field of vision Lucretia just _drops,_ burying her face in her hands and releasing the shield around her. Lup doesn’t have to think before she’s in motion, raising the umbrastaff and casting something beyond any named spell. All of Lup’s magic, pent up from the years she spent trapped, pours in a blinding light out of the vessel that held her. The light, almost as beautiful as the Light of Creation itself, encircles Lucretia almost delicately and then, in a massive and powerful wave, shoots outward and obliterates every single agent of The Hunger on the Bureau of Balance moonbase.

     Everyone stands stock still for several moments, completely dumbstruck, and then the quad is in motion again. Many people are cheering, many more are hugging, and a select few wise individuals are just plopping down on the ground to recover spell slots for the battle they know must be ahead. Lucretia, still on the ground, slowly and tentatively lifts her tear-streaked face to see Lup standing directly above her, face once again unreadable.

     “Oh god, Lup, I,”

     Lup falls to meet Lucretia where she is, hugging her just as hard as she hugged Barry and Taako.

“How fucking _dare_ you,” she says hoarsely. “How dare you try and bail on me before I even have the chance to forgive you?”

     Barry looks like he's about to say something, but Taako shoots him a glare that stops him in his tracks. They'll deal with Lucretia later. For now, it's Lup’s right to hug whoever the fuck she wants to. It's her right to forgive, even if Taako isn't sure he'll ever be able to look Lucretia in the eyes again.

     Eventually Magnus, Merle, and Davenport make their way over, all staring at Lup like the absolute miracle she is. Angus wanders over, eyes wide, and stares between Taako and Lup with an expression that makes Merle dissolve into laughter.

     Soon, they will all have to face the reality of the Hunger. Soon, they will have to face the deep divides that have ravaged their group but for now, for just a moment, they are almost… safe. Almost happy.

     For now, they are in the eye of the storm.

 

**Author's Note:**

> Title from "Older and Taller" by Regina Spektor, which is a very TAZ song that I encourage everyone to listen to. Shout out to everyone in the TAZ Zone discord, especially those who helped out with this, for being incredible. I love y'all.


End file.
